Centercourt Instructors

Loic Didavi

Tennis Coach

My favorite sports event/memory/moment is ...One of the most important moments in my tennis career was going to a tournament by myself at a pretty young age. Neither my parents, coaches, brothers, or friends were there and my first round match on a court was tough and I was not playing well. One thing that strikes me was that the match was really difficult and I wasn’t playing very well, but I found myself actually enjoying the grind. Enjoying the moment. I realized I was starting to enjoy the challenging, and even the painful, parts of tennis. That was the first time I realized that I was actually playing for myself, not for my parents, my coaches, my brothers, or my friends. I realized I truly loved tennis competition.

From this point I started to appreciate the difficult moments and began to enjoy all the parts of tennis that most usually do not like. This is when I really began to improve and start winning matches. As a coach one of my philosophies is to make the player embrace the tougher moments by leading by example. I encourage my players to find ways to make their internal dialogue a little hopeful no matter the situation to show that this is how they will improve and transform into an even better player and competitor.

Coach Loic is originally from Benin, and started playing tennis almost as soon as he learned to walk. He has represented his country in the Davis Cup several times. He played #1 on the Xavier University Tennis Team, where he later served as Assistant Coach. As Assistant Coach, he helped the team reach the finals at Nationals twice. He was NAIA Tennis National Champion at Auburn University of Montgomery in 2010.

Loic joins Centercourt after running his own junior program in New Orleans, LA, where he worked with some of the top junior players in the Southern Division, many of whom have gone on to sign with top-tier colleges. He has also coached at the Giammalva Tennis Academy summer camp in Houston, TX and the Clemson University summer camp in Clemson, SC.

Loic has a BA in Business Management, and is fluent in English, French, and, his ancestral language, Fon. Loic is excited to work with the talented and hard-working junior players at Centercourt.